The tech giants of Silicon Valley are starting to rely on crime-fighting robots for security

Knightscope
Around 8 p.m. on a recent night outside the offices of Knightscope, a robotics startup based in the heart of Silicon Valley, a middle-aged man allegedly toppled a five-foot tall, 300-pound robot to the ground.
The security robot, called K5, had been circling the front parking lot on patrol, as it does every day. After the attack, the machine - which looks like the love child of R2-D2 and a Dalek from "Doctor Who" - sounded an alarm and alerted employees inside to the incident.Bill Santana Li, CEO of Knightscope, tells Business Insider there's a lesson to be learned from the events on April 19.
"Don't mess with a K5," Li says.Founded in 2013, Knightscope makes autonomous crime-fighting robots that patrol malls, sports arenas, and corporate campuses that belong to tech companies like Microsoft, Uber (which Fusion first reported and Li declined to confirm), and Juniper Networks. Knightscope rents out the machines for $7 an hour - less than a human security guard's hourly salary.

Knightscope
The Sacramento Kings put a K5 to work keeping its stadium safe.
Their goal is to give human security guards "superhuman" eyes and ears, rather than replace them, Li says.
Though the 300-pound robots aren't weaponized, they can still do damage. Knightscope made headlines in 2016 when a K5 allegedly ran over a toddler's foot while on patrol outside a mall in Palo Alto, California. The boy's foot swelled and he got a scrape on his leg, though he was otherwise fine, ABC7 News reported. A handful of parents took to social media to rail against the use of robotics in mall security.
Knightscope made news again in April when a K5 got in a tussle with a man outside the company headquarters."The robot did what it was supposed to do in an emergency. It understood that the situation was anomalous, sounded the alarms, and reported the incident," Noe Sacoco, a spokesperson for Knightscope, said in an email. "This incident speaks to the core of what Knightscope is all about: humans and robots working together to prevent crime."

Knightscope
The real-life "RoboCop" may also help prevent crime, according to Li. "If I put a marked law enforcement vehicle in front of your home or your office, criminal behavior changes," he says. (Increased police presence can reduce crime, though this is not always the case.)

Knightscope
Most security guards in America undergo a background check and receive several hours of training. In California, they must be licensed. But a hodgepodge of rules and regulations across state lines leads to many private security guards entering the industry with little training or oversight. The results can be tragic, a year-long investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN found.
A robot makes data-driven decisions based on input from the environment. It does what it's told (which could yield negative outcomes if the robot was hacked by someone with malicious intent). It never has an attitude or calls in sick.Some customers have really taken to their bots. One company issued their robot an employee badge, Li says. The K5 machines at cybersecurity company ForeScout share a Twitter account.Knightscope is eyeing an expansion to a college campus, a movie studio, and a law enforcement office later this year. Li sees a "huge opportunity" to make schools more secure through technology. Robots might detect suspicious activity sooner than a human, and because they're cheaper to deploy than humans, they could be placed all around a campus.
Li, a former executive at Ford, expects robotics to play a major role in the security industry.
"I think [robotics] will turn the world upside down," Li says.Taking Sparky for his afternoon walk pic.twitter.com/FJ9q5toaJI
- El-iot & Harr-iot (@Eliot_Harriot) April 19, 2017
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